In
his essay A
Message to Garcia, American philosopher and writer Elbert Hubbard
(1856-1915) wrote:

"Every
man should have a college education in order to show him how little
the thing is really worth."

Mr.
Hubbard would probably say the same thing about graduate school - but
if you're getting a PhD in the biological and biomedical sciences,* you
get paid to go to school! You also have flexible hours, student
discounts, and no dress code - things I sorely miss now that I have entered
the world of "business casual." Still, having a PhD is pretty
awesome - even if I have to ration my vacation/sick days and pay full
price for movie tickets. I feel especially cool because I can now select
the title of "Dr." instead of "Ms." when I shop online.

For
several years, I published a graduate
stipend comparison for Ph.D. programs in the biological and biomedical
sciences. However, in the past year or so, various things (like dissertation,
graduating, getting a job, etc.) have prevented me from making a list
for the 2007-8
academic year. Due to popular demand, I finally updated this
site—then promptly sandbagged it again due to chronic overscheduling. A new site is coming soon.

If you would like to share stipend information, please email
me at wendychao (AT) post.harvard.edu. To
make a comment, please
click here. Thanks very much in advance!